


magic in the midnight sun

by katana_fleet



Series: past the clouds, we'll find the stars [2]
Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-10
Updated: 2020-01-10
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:33:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22194112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katana_fleet/pseuds/katana_fleet
Summary: When Chloe woke up, the birds were chirping, the sun was shining, and Trixie was sitting on the bed in between her and Lucifer. "It's my birthday!"[set during chapter 5 of 'all those tremulous stars still glitter']
Relationships: Chloe Decker/Lucifer Morningstar
Series: past the clouds, we'll find the stars [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1597609
Comments: 12
Kudos: 101





	magic in the midnight sun

**Author's Note:**

> title from 'dustland fairytale' by the killers. nothing is mine except situation and fluff. school starts again on monday so there's no telling when/if i'll ever get another fic out. just kidding. hopefully.
> 
> this is set during chapter 5 of 'all those tremulous stars still glitter.' i would recommend reading that first, but if you don't feel like it the basics are as follows: chloe is pregnant with lucifer's child, lucifer is back from hell, and they're super in love. that's basically it. enjoy the fluff.

It would be a lie to say that Chloe had been looking forward to Trixie’s eleventh birthday party. There were a few factors involved in her decision to spend most of the day before the party on the couch with ice cream, not limited to pregnancy, Lucifer, small children, their parents, and her own mother. Okay, at the moment, it was mostly her mom.

Penelope Decker had flown in two days before the party, mostly to _help Chloe get ready! You’re huge, darling, and you need help, don’t you? Of course you do_ , and had ended up being the expected stressor. Chloe sighed into her ice cream. “Are you okay, honey?” Penelope, who was stirring spaghetti sauce at the stove, asked in brilliant timing.

She’d invited herself along to Chloe’s expertly-timed OB appointment (Lucifer, although a huge fan of her mom, was almost as tired of her and had decided to tag along with Dan on a day-long stake-out instead of go to this appointment) and _gushed_ over the ultrasound. Normally these appointments were punctuated by Lucifer’s “no wings, correct?” and Chloe’s own normal person questions like “do her feet look okay?”, but this time the technician had gotten to answer “isn’t my grandbaby going to be the cutest little girl in the world?” with a smiling but dry “of course she is.” (They were not paying for the 4D ultrasound to actually see too many facial features; Lucifer saw an example of that and had made too many references to horror and torture and Chloe decided to just see how cute the kid was when she was born.)

Penelope had then decided to manage the remaining party-planning, which was mostly fine since she’d done okay with Chloe’s parties back in the day, except that Trixie was thankfully not as much of a pushover as young Chloe was (when Penelope decided that the theme of her party when she turned six was going to be 1920s, Chloe did not argue even though she would have preferred _Terminator_ ), so grandmother and granddaughter had had two very polite arguments over theme and color scheme. Trixie wanted dinosaurs and unicorns; Penelope wanted pink-a-palooza. They’d decided to go with just unicorns. On the couch, Chloe was currently surrounded by fluff and plush and unicorns and silver. One of the balloons on the floor, driven by air conditioning, bounced up onto the couch and the baby kicked back in revenge. Chloe winced and took another bite of chocolate chip cookie dough.

The invitations had been sent out a week ago; Trixie wanted to invite six girls and three boys from her class. In a rare moment of agreement (aside from when Dan willingly let Lucifer on this stake-out—Chloe checked her watch; he should have been home by now) Dan and Lucifer had fussed at Chloe in the precinct for thirty minutes about the virtues of inviting boys to their little girl’s birthday party (Dan also didn’t argue when Lucifer basically called Trix his own kid and Chloe just barely didn’t cry at the sweetness) until Chloe collared them both and almost slammed their heads together and told them to deal with it. Also, she was going to be _eleven_. She—Chloe—hadn’t gotten her first boyfriend until she was thirteen. (That led Lucifer to another line of questioning that was only stopped by Ella’s excited shrieking about DNA.)

Interrupting her musings about the case—her theory about the vic’s father being the murderer had been completely debunked by the DNA results, leading her to suspect a few teachers at school since the poor kid by all accounts didn’t talk to anyone else—Lucifer suddenly burst through the front door. He was stopped by a bombardment of pink and yellow and blue streamers. He kicked a few balloons and stopped short. “Detective?” She waved from the couch, spoon in her mouth, and Lucifer muttered to himself as he untangled himself from the streamers.

“Oh, Lucifer!” Penelope squealed. It was no secret that Penelope had always had a crush on Lucifer but the fact that he’d impregnated her daughter made the infatuation about four times worse and seven times weirder. “What do you think about all the decorations?”

Chloe pushed herself off the couch and stared at Lucifer, eyebrow raised as high as she could get it. “It looks lovely, Penelope, I’m sure all the little spawn will appreciate it before they destroy it,” he chirped. He made his way over to the couch, kicking balloons out of the way—it looked like she really hadn’t seen how many balloons her mom had managed to blow up while she was at work. Lucifer was basically wading through a sea of them, and apparently she’d just wandered through them on her quest for the fridge and the couch—until he managed to throw himself over the back and gracefully land with head on the cushion, hands crossed over his stomach, and feet dangling over the end.

Penelope was somewhat shocked silent by the reminder that children wreak havoc (this very thing was why Trixie had made plans to try to keep her friends outside), so she took the opportunity to talk. “How was the stake-out?”

Lucifer reached up and poked at the baby’s knee, which was leaving a lump in the side of her stomach. “Daniel was boring as ever, but you not being there meant I got to wade through the firefight and impress him by my ability to supposedly avoid bullets.” She leaned down just enough to move his jacket aside to reveal the three bullet holes in his shirt. “That happened at the very end.”

“And that makes a difference… how?”

“Until then it was a normal boring stake-out. Daniel gave me advice on how to deal with you as you get more annoyingly pregnant—”

“Ooh, that’s a good way to phrase that, since you were the one who did this, and also I’m going to have a talk with Dan, he’s going to love that—”

“And then he asked what to get the child for her birthday and I naturally suggested socks, because all of Beatrice’s seem to have holes—”

“He hasn’t gotten me anything yet?” Trixie shrieked from her bedroom door.

“He was kidding, monkey, I know he already got something.” She glanced down at Lucifer, who managed an entire _yikes_ face, and she inwardly groaned. The man had said he’d figured out what to get Trixie two weeks ago, but apparently he was going to be rolling up with more chocolate cake or a stuffed animal. He was completely hit or miss for presents, Dan was.

They were silent for a minute while Penelope stared back and forth between the three of them—Trixie was pouting and probably wondering whether to tell her dad what she wanted or just hope that he was lying to Lucifer, Lucifer’s hand was roaming her stomach in an attempt to find the baby’s head, and Chloe was trying to decide whether to laugh (she was far more ticklish than she wanted to admit) or throw up her hands and admit defeat. Instead, she took another bite of melting ice cream.

“Dinner’s ready!” Penelope cheered, interrupting the family dynamic. They sat down after wading through the sea of silver balloons, and sure enough, her mom hadn’t learned how to cook. Lucifer lavished her with praise to cover up for Chloe and Trixie barely eating (in Chloe’s defense, she’d been eating ice cream most of the afternoon).

The night ended with Trixie calling her dad, who sounded utterly exhausted on speakerphone, and proclaiming her desire for a video game that Chloe had hidden up in her and Lucifer’s room. Chloe interrupted this with a request for more info about the stake-out, leading her to conclude that Lucifer was almost an accurate source of information—there had been a small shooting at the end but basically nothing else had happened. She found herself back on make-sure-Lucifer’s-jacket-is-buttoned duty when Penelope gasped at Lucifer running into the shoot-out. It would not do for her mom to find out Lucifer’s… unique invulnerability. Not at _all_.

“How long is the party going to be tomorrow?” Lucifer called from the bedroom while she was brushing her teeth an hour later.

Chloe mumbled through the toothpaste and glanced at him through the door frame. He raised an eyebrow and she rinsed her mouth out. “At least three hours. Maybe longer. Depends on how many of the parents decide that we’re free childcare for the rest of the afternoon.”

Lucifer groaned and planted his face in her pillow. She sat down on the bed next to him and rubbed his shoulder. He arched up into her hand, almost purring. “All the moms are going to love you, you know.”

“More women to see how far I’ve fallen. And not just from the Silver City, but straight into domesticity.” She snorted and he rolled over to press his head into her side. The baby kicked at his head and he glared at her stomach but didn’t move. “She was mine first, you little spawn,” he muttered.

She brushed his hair back and he reached around to tug her onto the bed properly, nuzzling into the back of her neck and wrapping his arm around her as much as possible. She’d reached the point where sleeping was uncomfortable, but he’d been doing his best to act as a human-sized pillow so that she wasn’t completely sleep-deprived and therefore annoying in the mornings. It was mostly working. She was going to add something about how much she loved him, but she fell asleep before she could open her mouth.

When she woke up the birds were chirping, the sun was shining, and Trixie was sitting in between her and Lucifer. “It’s my birthday!”

* * *

It was two in the afternoon on the day of Trixie Espinoza’s eleventh birthday and the party was going great. Chloe looked around her backyard and decided that wasn’t even sarcasm.

Most of Trixie’s friends were the kind of friends who hadn’t yet made it to her house for a playdate, so she hadn’t met their moms. That also meant that if the mom had heard that Lucifer was involved in Trixie’s life, it was through the grapevine and she probably didn’t really believe it. (Lucifer had picked Trixie up from school a dozen times at least, but he tended to make it the fastest journey possible since he claimed he would get sick if he spent too long at the school, so maybe four people had seen him there.) So when they were met at the Decker home with a smiling Lucifer Morningstar, they didn’t really know what to think. Responses ranged from “oh my god” to “hello?” to “Chloe-Decker-you-did-not-tell-me-that-Lucifer-Morningstar-was-Trixie’s-stepfather!”

Dan was close enough to hear that last almost-screamed sentence, and he took the advantage to inform Jaimie’s mom that Lucifer was not in fact his ex-wife’s husband. Chloe just smiled vaguely, welcomed people to her home, and disappeared into the crowd as much as she could.

Trixie was almost overcome with joy at the whole affair, and she was running through the backyard with her friends, playing tag like there was no tomorrow. The only times she stopped moving were when someone new showed up (Stella’s appearance had caused a joyful uproar, since Stella was the second-most-popular kid in sixth grade—behind Trixie herself—and Stella had been really sick two days before and no one was sure she was going to be able to come, least of all Stella’s helicopter mom. Chloe and Lucifer resolved to stay away from Stella, since both could get sick and neither had the mental capacity to deal with the other being ill) and when an adult called for her.

Thus far, Lucifer hadn’t done much of anything aside from field mothers. Chloe had written on the invitation _kids only!_ to prevent exactly this, which was single or unhappily-married moms hounding the Devil. He’d welcomed the attention at first, since it was obviously showing Chloe how she should be acting since she was lucky enough to get him around all the time (she almost punched him at that comment and he almost apologized).

“Lucifer’s stuck in the living room with Michael and Madison’s mom and Adalynn’s mom and I think it was Destinee’s mom too,” Dan reported. Chloe groaned and let her head fall on his shoulder. “What? Come on, you had to have expected that.”

She had, of course she had. “Remind me not to invite moms to any birthday party that Lucifer’s going to ever again. They’re not allowed to step inside.” Dan nodded and Chloe straightened again. “Are Linda and Amenadiel and Maze here yet?”

“You invited them?”

“I was only going to invite Maze since she’s good with kids—” Dan scoffed “—but Lucifer wanted to invite his brother too. And Linda wanted to see a kid’s birthday party to get ready for Charlie’s in a few months. And Mom said we had enough cake, so I thought what the hell.”

“And it was probably a good idea to have a few more adults anyway, at least ones who won’t hit on Lucifer.”

“Did you even invite your parents? I said you could.”

Dan laughed, not unkindly and almost resignedly. “You know what they would have said if I’d even tried.”

She sighed. Dan’s parents had always hated her even with Trixie’s existence, and the divorce had _not_ helped anything about their relationship. They’d probably seen Trixie four times in her life, honestly. And also—seeing her with a new guy, pregnant at that, would probably have made Mr. Espinoza cause a scene, and they really didn’t need that. Dan had definitely made the right call. Just then she felt herself enclosed from behind by a pair of arms. She glanced up to see Lucifer’s somewhat haunted face.

“There’s too many women here.”

“You own a strip club,” Dan deadpanned.

Lucifer didn’t dignify that with a response, the _most of those women aren’t single and hoping that I’ll be the father of their children_ thankfully left unsaid. “And Amenadiel and Linda arrived, but they decided to wear wedding rings so that no one flirts with Amenadiel.”

That remark finally let Chloe tune out the screaming children. “Did they get _married_?” Dan’s surprise echoed her own.

“No, of course not,” Maze scoffed as she threw a dagger that Chloe desperately hoped was foam—judging by the painless and bloodless way Trixie caught the blade, it was, whew—at the crowd of children. “Happy birthday, Trix,” she said as Trixie jumped into her arms.

“You came!” Trixie shrieked. The crowd of children around Trixie reformed around Maze, and Chloe and Lucifer and Dan took a few steps backward to make sure they didn’t get crushed in the throng. It was only eight children not counting the one holding onto Maze like a monkey but it seemed like so many more. They escaped into the house.

“Beautiful party, Chloe!” Linda gushed, seizing her in a hug. She thanked her while glancing around her living room—it looked like most of the parents (except Stella’s mom, who was admiring pictures of Charlie and explaining vaccination to Amenadiel—Chloe made a mental note to check on that education later) had disappeared when Lucifer escaped them. “Thank you so much for the invitation!”

“It was mostly my mom,” Chloe admitted, motioning toward Penelope who waved graciously. “She did the decorations and arranged everything while I sat on the couch. I have to ask. You and Amenadiel didn’t get…”

“No, no, not married,” Linda laughed, holding up the hand that displayed rings that looked completely real. “Lucifer just mentioned on Monday how many parents were likely coming and I—Amenadiel wanted to shut down any flirting that might happen.”

Chloe nodded, wondering vaguely if Lucifer still had his old ring from his marriage to Candy around—but that would just completely mess with everyone’s head, not limited to her mom and Trixie. They’d just discussed the complete ridiculousness of them getting married; warding off a little flirting was not worth that. And, besides—it was almost funny.

Penelope, looking distressed next to the kitchen window, motioned her over. Maze—at Trixie’s insistence, no doubt—was throwing knives at children. Chloe watched it for a moment, forgetting why it was a bad thing since Maze had the best aim in the nation, before remembering frightened parents and she ran out the door as quickly as she physically could. “Maze!” she called across the backyard.

“Decker!” The demon threw a knife at Jaxon, who squealed when it landed in the fence an inch from his ear.

“We don’t throw knives in this neighborhood!” she said, desperately hoping that Stella’s mom wasn’t paying attention. Maze and Trixie and the children deflated, clearly enjoying the game, but her explanation was interrupted by Penelope.

“It’s time for cake!” Lucifer stood next to Penelope, clearly having told her to make the announcement as further distraction, and Chloe kissed him quickly before filing in after the kids. What a man—Devil. The children forgot about being used as target practice in favor of chocolate cake iced with a unicorn on the top and tiny velociraptors on the sides.

Once they were arranged around the table, birthday hat on Trixie’s head, Chloe finally relaxed. Lucifer’s hand pressed into the small of her back as he accidentally led them in a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday. Trixie blew out the candles in one go and everyone cheered. Penelope cut the cake and Linda scooped the ice cream. Stella’s mom—who was _still there_ —prevented Stella from taking any cake because of too much sugar. Dan took a thousand pictures in under five minutes.

After the cake—which Chloe thought was unexpectedly bitter and so she kept to the ice cream, making ice cream the main thing she’d eaten in two days—the kids ran outside to play again. She grabbed Maze’s arm and made her promise to not throw any more knives before letting her follow. Maze rolled her eyes but agreed, instead taking up the mantle of chase-everyone-around-the-yard-while-growling.

“What is Maze doing to the spawn?” Lucifer asked as they cleaned up the table. “It looks like she’s playing a game that we like to call _demon catch them all_.”

“You would know more about hell games than I do, so I guess you’re right. Does that just mean she’s going to run around until she catches them all?”

Lucifer nodded, finally just grabbing the trashcan and sweeping everything off the table into it. “The demons aren’t particularly creative with naming things.”

“Did you look at what you were throwing in the trash just then?” Lucifer glanced down into the trashcan and picked out the knife they’d used to cut the cake, one of Maze’s daggers, and Dan’s phone. A conveniently-passing-by Dan took the phone that Lucifer cheerily offered, wiping it off with distaste. Lucifer wasn’t the only one at this party who was concerned about getting some horrible disease from the children.

“When should we bring them back in for presents?” Dan asked.

Chloe glanced out into the yard. Maze was demonstrating some backflips and Trixie was poised to imitate her. Hopefully none of the kids were about to break a wrist. “Let’s just let them burn off some energy for a little longer. By the way, what did you get Trixie?”

“I had a feeling you’d already gotten that video game—”

“Yes, I had, she’s been asking for it for two months.”

“—so I got her a different video game that I don’t think she has.”

Chloe nodded. Trixie really didn’t have that many games, so it was probably fine. She pointed toward Trix’s box anyway in case Dan wanted to check, there was probably time for him to run out and get that predicted stuffed animal if she did—judging by his relieved face, she didn’t already have it. Lucky man.

She jumped when Lucifer rested his chin on the top of her head. “Are you okay?”

She nodded as well as she could with the weight pressing her head down. “Going to be better when I can sit down.” He took her hand and tugged her toward the living room and available space on the couch. “There’s a good chance you’ll have to really pull to get me up again.”

“When are you due?” Linda asked, setting her glass of wine on the coffee table.

She was about to answer but the red shine distracted her. “Where did you get the wine?”

“I brought the wine,” Stella’s mom said sheepishly. “I really wasn’t thinking.” Chloe wanted to respond to that but couldn’t figure out how aside from a vague _no you weren’t_ smile.

“Nine weeks left, was it?”

“I think it is nine weeks, isn’t it, Chloe? That’s what the doctor said yesterday at your appointment. Good memory, Lucifer!”

Lucifer allowed himself to forget that he didn’t like too much physical contact except in the bedroom and wedged himself between her and Linda. “I would remember when my life is going to change from almost normal to absolutely nothing resembling the old days,” he smiled at Penelope. His arm fell along the back of the sofa, his fingers tapping on her shoulder.

“All good changes, of course, brother?”

Lucifer didn’t give that remark the dignity of an answer aside from rolling his eyes, and Chloe almost laughed. He’d been doing really well lately, so she wasn’t complaining.

“This is your first child, Lucifer?” Stella’s mom asked.

“Considering that this one shouldn’t be possible at all, I’m going with yes. That’s one of the good things about being the Devil, all those pesky paternity test requests coming out of the woodwork always come out negative.”

Stella’s mom didn’t know how to react to that, and Dan rolled his eyes at the implication that Lucifer was flooded with such requests. Since Lucifer had been served with two in the past just-barely three months he’d been back from Hell, it definitely seemed to be a normal thing. Linda and Amenadiel changed the subject into something (merits of local elementary schools) that Lucifer wouldn’t want to talk about, even if just for Stella’s mom’s sake.

Chloe leaned her head on Lucifer’s shoulder. “Do you want to order pizza for the kids?” she whispered.

He let out a heavy sigh. “Did you tell their parents you would?”

“I don’t remember.”

“That means they’ll stay for so much longer instead of going home like good children.”

“I don’t remember asking about allergies, so I hope I didn’t say I’d feed them more. There’s an invitation on the coffee table, what does it say?” Lucifer pulled away for a second to grab the glittery paper. She snuggled back into his side when he sat back down.

“Your mum just mentioned chocolate cake, no other food.” In unison, they let out a sigh of the greatest relief.

“Was I supposed to mention other food?” Penelope asked. They assured her as quickly as possible that no, there was no pizza after all, it was fine, it was _great_ , no problem. She looked appeased by that and immediately dove into baby questions, including and not limited to name (undecided), godparents (probably not going to have them because Lucifer thought it was weird), theme for the room (depended on what they got at the baby shower in two weeks), and if she was going to give birth at the hospital (for goodness’ sake _yes_ ).

Penelope was only derailed from the baby train by Trixie rushing inside. “Mommy, Jaxon hurt his ankle really bad.” Of _course_ that was going to happen.

Being the responsible adults they all were, they immediately jumped up—Chloe did need a bit of help maneuvering off the couch—and rushed outside. Jaxon was on the ground, whimpering quietly with Maze holding him still, and his foot was most definitely not pointed in the right direction. The other kids were crowded around him and Maze, leaving just enough space for Trixie to elbow her way through and make room for Chloe.

Dan glanced down at the boy and turned a light shade of pale. Stella’s mom and Penelope turned green and stayed as far back as possible. Chloe brushed her fingers down Jaxon’s foot—thankfully he was wearing flip-flops, so they didn’t have to mess with getting a shoe off—and he shrieked when she touched the bent area.

She glanced up at Lucifer, whose hand on her back was probably the only thing keeping her from throwing off sparks in the midst of the rising stress, and stood up to whisper in his ear. “Can you or Amenadiel heal things?”

“I definitely can’t and Amenadiel generally doesn’t, despite how convenient it would be, and I don’t think you want now—” he stared pointedly around at the other children and Stella’s mom and Dan “—to be the time he tests that out.” Amenadiel nodded after taking a peek at Jaxon’s ankle.

Chloe had to agree, so she found herself on the phone with Jaxon’s mom, who thankfully lived two minutes down the road, had seen far worse as a mother of five, and was basically the opposite of Stella’s mom, who had, at the sight of Jaxon on the ground, grabbed Stella close and basically refused to let her outside without her supervision ever again.

Ten minutes later after the assurance that there would be no lawsuit and Jaxon would still be allowed to be friends with Trixie, Jaxon’s mom bundled him into the car and asked for the date of Chloe’s baby shower since she had a lot of extra crap and no intention to ever have more kids. Linda happily called out the date, Chloe tried not to cry at the forgiveness of people who had faith in the resilience of children, and Jaxon waved a pitiful goodbye.

Everyone in the front lawn sighed. While she wasn’t surprised it had happened, she really wished her kid’s birthday party hadn’t involved someone going to the ER. “What do you want to do now, Trixie?” Chloe finally asked.

Trixie leaned into her side before remembering she had to look cool in front of her friends. She took a step away and crossed her arms. “Presents?” she asked hopefully.

Chloe glanced at Dan and Lucifer in turn, both of whom stared at Trixie with _how could you not let this child enjoy the rest of her birthday_ painted across their faces. Even though she just wanted to send everyone home and take a nap, she pulled out every last bit of enthusiasm she had left and cheered everyone back into the house and to the living room.

Led by her grandmother, Trixie dove into the presents. Linda kept a list of who gave her everything, the other kids oohed and ahhed appropriately, and Maze produced a beer out of nowhere.

“Will we have to have one of these for the new infant each year on top of Beatrice’s?” Lucifer muttered at her side. “Seems like so much more trouble than it’s worth.” Chloe let her silence answer that, resting her hand on her stomach to protect the baby from the possibility of a life without birthday parties. Even with how tired she was, she could never give her such a fate. He sighed, interpreting the silence as _of course she’ll have birthday parties, you idiot_. “Less friends next time, then. Trixie does look fairly happy, after all, it would be a shame to deprive this one of that joy.”

She glanced up at him, more than a little surprised he’d noticed how happy Trixie was. Even with the mild fiasco, Trixie was almost glowing with the love of her friends and family. She jumped up and down, squealing as she clutched a new teddy bear that was half her size. “I’m going to call him Paddington!” The rest of the kids immediately started arguing over a better name but Trixie’s voice was loudest or most persuasive and soon they were tossing Paddington gently around the room. Just as Dan opened his mouth to tell them to stop, Lailah handed Trixie the next gift.

Chloe leaned her head against Lucifer’s shoulder. “It’s a lot, but it’s pretty fun.”

“And you’re going to say it’s worth it, or something like that.”

“Look at her. You can’t think otherwise.”

Lucifer glanced at Trixie again—now holding a tiny makeup kit and looking vaguely concerned as Penelope squealed—and smiled down at her. “You know I’ll do anything to make sure you and Trixie and the baby are safe, but keeping you happy is almost as high on the list.”

“I know.”

“Mom! Look what Madison and Michael got me!” Chloe looked up and Lucifer snorted, just barely holding back a laugh. It was the same video game that _she’d_ gotten for Trix.

“Looks like so much fun, monkey!” As an aside to Lucifer, she muttered, “Should have done family presents first.”

* * *

The kids and associated parents were gone by five, all enthusing about the party and Trixie’s family (and especially “your stepdad, he’s so cool!”). It was a short birthday party all things considered, but Chloe had persuaded Trixie to accept a short party in exchange for more playdates after the baby came. She’d only needed eight seconds to consider that, so now they were alone again, the family collapsed in the living room. Dan ordered the pizza that they had denied the kids, and they were now recovering.

“Happy birthday, Trixie,” Amenadiel said solemnly. Linda, almost jumping up and down (still! How did she still have energy?), handed Trixie another box. The small chocolate fudges inside were going to be enough to keep Trixie going for another few hours.

“We would have given it to you while your friends were still here, but we didn’t think you’d want to share so many of them,” Linda winked. Trixie winked back, grinning, and hugged her and Amenadiel as tightly as she could.

Dan handed Trixie his haphazardly-wrapped box, she ripped it open with proper enthusiasm, and they made plans to play the game as soon as possible, which would probably include a trip to Lux to steal the PlayStation or whatever it needed. Lucifer pretended to grumble about that, but he hadn’t used anything in the penthouse since he came back from Hell, so whatever. Despite Dan’s protests, they would probably end up making a day of it in the penthouse, which Chloe thought was nothing short of hilarious.

Lucifer handed her a cup of water when she couldn’t start laughing at the idea that Dan was going to hang out in the penthouse for the day, and she mastered herself. “Trixie, I have a confession.”

“What is it, Mommy?” Trixie looked almost as concerned as she would have if she’d been learning she was actually getting a baby brother instead of sister.

“You know that video game Michael and Madison got you?” Trixie nodded, imitating a happy bobble head. “That’s the exact present I got you, so you can have two copies of it if you want or—”

Trixie ripped open the wrapping paper and squealed just as much as the first time, hugging it to her chest. “Can we go shopping and return the other one and I can get books or something? I don’t need two of the same game. Or we can give it away!”

She blinked at Trixie but nodded. Trix hugged her and ran toward Dan, who’d just taken the pizza boxes from the delivery guy (she waved at Henry as he left. Dan looked at her strangely after he closed the door, but Lucifer explained that Henry worked for almost every delivery place they got food from and he and Chloe were basically best friends now, and Dan accepted that. A cook, Chloe Decker was not).

“Books?” Lucifer whispered. “She might as well ask for more tips on how to be like her boring mum—not boring at all. You’re very, very interesting. But if she wants clothes instead, I’m taking her. Your clothing style is good on no one but you. On you, it’s hot, on anyone else it’s old.”

“You’re just digging yourself into and out of so many holes, aren’t you?” She kissed his cheek anyway because she was pretty sure there were more compliments than insults in there and accepted the plate of pizza Maze handed her.

They chatted about the party for a while (okay, it was mostly Trixie talking; she thought it was the best time ever even with Jaxon breaking his bones, and she wanted to do it again soon, maybe _before_ her next birthday, and she wanted the baby’s first birthday party to be unicorn themed too) before Amenadiel and Linda excused themselves in favor of relieving Charlie’s babysitter and Maze got a call about a bounty. Maze gave Trixie the biggest hug she’d ever seen, slipped Trixie a knife as a present (maybe Maze was subtle, but Trixie was not subtle in the acceptance), and disappeared into the night.

And so they remained: Trixie, her parents, and the Devil. Penelope took herself to bed when Maze left, promising to take Trixie out on the town in the morning before she had to leave for home. Trixie squealed at the prospect of _going out on the town_ and getting ice cream, and Chloe immediately started planning what to do on her only-have-to-deal-with-one-other-person day.

Lucifer was still weird about physical contact, but the charms of getting his hair played with were enough to have him lying on the couch with his head in Chloe’s lap and allow the baby to kick (nudge, really) him in the face. Dan had been around long enough with Chloe and Lucifer doing whatever couple-like thing that he’d learned to deal with it, so he and Trixie were reading all they could about her new video games.

“I got Trixie something else,” Lucifer whispered, poking at her stomach in retaliation and pointedly not looking at Trixie.

Chloe brushed his hair entirely the wrong way to see the effect and smoothed it back when it was clear that Lucifer had done his research on the best way to part his hair. “Is it age-appropriate?”

“What do you take me for, Detective?”

“The literal Devil. And basically Trixie’s stepfather, if you ask five of the eight kids who were here today.”

He shuddered. “Again, how far I’ve fallen. It’s _age-appropriate_.” She let him lie there another moment as he looked for approval.

She motioned toward their room. “Are you going to go get it?” He bounded off the couch and disappeared down the hallway. And this was the same guy who’d bought the same child a hundred-dollar doll one time. He came back with a small box, which Trixie took when she noticed him awkwardly standing behind her.

Trixie turned her attention away from the video game to hug Lucifer and pull him down to her level before opening the box, and Chloe and Dan exchanged vaguely concerned glances. Inside the box was a thin silver necklace with wings, the bases of the wings meeting delicately in the middle. Trixie squealed, hugged Lucifer again, and handed the necklace to Lucifer and then Dan for help fastening it.

“Looks beautiful, monkey.”

“Thank you, Lucifer!”

“You’re welcome, Beatrice.” Trixie pulled him into a conversation about the PlayStation and Dan stood up to sit on the couch next to her.

“Did he pick that out himself?” She nodded, and Dan glanced admiringly at Lucifer. “I’ll never understand that family’s fascination with angels, but it’s beautiful. If you did have to marry him, it wouldn’t be the worst thing.”

She choked on her water and he tapped her back. Lucifer glanced up at her, her nod assuring him that she wasn’t dying, and turned back to Trixie’s gushing. “You were firmly on Side Never-Marry-Lucifer four hours ago. Not to mention your disgust with the idea a few weeks ago.”

Dan shrugged. “He’s good with Trixie.”

And that was enough explanation; it always was. How much Lucifer loved Trixie may not have been the exact reason she fell in love with him, but it definitely had been on the list. And besides, Lucifer loved _Trixie_ before he loved _her_ , long before he could even think of admitting he loved her, and she would never doubt that. Dan joined Lucifer and Trix on the floor again, joining Trixie’s side in an argument about _Star Wars_. Weirdest family dynamic, but Chloe loved it more than anything.

* * *

The baby kicked just as Lucifer collapsed on the bed next to her, his head bouncing on his pillow for a second. “Ow.”

“What?”

“Your daughter thinks my ribs have a target painted on them, and she has good aim.”

“Good for her?”

“Not good for me, even if she is setting herself up to play soccer someday.”

“The spawn’s coming down the hall.”

“Do you actually have super hearing? I swear, sometimes, there’s no other explanation—what’s the matter, monkey?”

Trixie jumped on the bed between her and Lucifer, copying the pose of that morning, with the addition of one huge teddy bear. There was a little smile on her face. “It was a really good day.”

Lucifer’s confused gaze darted back and forth between her and Trixie’s faces. “I’m not sure what I’m supposed to say here. Congratulations, child.”

“I’m glad, Trixie. It was a good birthday?”

She nodded vigorously. “The best. Everybody from school got along and I wasn’t sure they would, Destinee and Lailah sometimes fight, but even they got along! And Jaxon texted me and he’s okay—”

“You’re texting with a boy?” Lucifer smirked.

“Eww, Lucifer, he’s not my _boyfriend_.” Trixie shoved him and he muttered an apology, still grinning. “And I got lots of cool stuff and _two_ copies of my favorite game and Maze got me a—nothing.”

Chloe tried not to laugh at the deflection. “You can only practice with the knife if an adult is watching, okay, monkey? It’s fine that she got you a knife but don’t mess with it alone.”

Trixie nodded seriously before patting Chloe’s stomach. “I’ll be twelve before she turns one. Isn’t that weird?”

“It is,” she said, almost wishing that Trixie didn’t have to keep growing up. Just eleven was fine. It definitely wasn’t time to think about her turning twelve. “Did you know that Paddington is bigger than the baby’s going to be when she’s born?”

“I forgot how tiny babies are,” Lucifer muttered, taking the bear from Trixie and awkwardly cradling it. “This is small enough.”

Trixie took Paddington back and copied the cradling motion before shoving the bear aside and crawling into Lucifer’s arms. He accepted it with surprising nonchalance. “I can’t wait for her to get here, but I’m glad I don’t have to share my birthday month. Lucifer! When’s your birthday?”

Chloe let their conversation wash over her and decided that it really had been a wonderful day. It’d had its ups and downs and an ER visit but honestly, that was just their life. It was all worth it for the smile on Trixie’s face and the way she’d lit up with all the people who loved her. And she’d gotten to see (and show to everyone else) what kind of father Lucifer Morningstar was going to be—already was.

* * *

When she woke up the next morning, Lucifer and Trixie were facing her, Trixie cuddled under Lucifer’s arm. His other arm was stretched across the pillows, reaching for her even in his sleep. Trixie was half-snoring like she did when she was so completely asleep that almost nothing would wake her until she decided it was time to get up. All the cares that normally plagued Lucifer were smoothed from his face, and he was almost smiling.

She’d been watching them for a while before she decided to get up (yay, back pain) and make breakfast. She wandered down the stairs, trying to make as little noise as possible, and grabbed the butter and eggs. Chloe had just cut the holes in the slices of bread when her mom stepped into the kitchen, already dressed for the day.

They exchanged good-morning smiles and Penelope watched her crack the eggs and make sure the toast wasn’t going to burn. Eventually she stepped around the counter and kissed her cheek. “I am so happy for you, Chloe.”

“Me too,” she said, smiling back. There, in that house, she had everything.


End file.
